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A U.S. Customs and Border Protection UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter swoops down on suspects. Original description by CBP: "A CBP Air unit UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter intimidates two vehicles on a remote air strip in America's southwest border region." (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today’s second segment in our three part series will focus on law enforcement on our border. Since our experts are from Texas, that will be our main geographic area of focus. Some background is in order. It should be clear that today all of our border law enforcement agencies come under the purview of Homeland Security. It wasn’t always so. The main divisions of enforcement today are, Border Patrol (BP), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In the old days before the Patriot Act and Homeland Security the Border Patrol and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) (which was changed to ICE when Homeland Security arrived) were both controlled by the Justice Department. The U.S. Customs Service (now renamed CBP), was governed by the Treasury Department. Let’s be clear, the official number one mission statement per Homeland Security of all of these agencies is to stop terrorism….. Not interdicting illegal immigrants and drug trafficking…..but catching terrorists. In the pre-Homeland era, Border Patrol had a mission to stop people from crossing the borders. The Customs Service (now the Customs and border Protection) are the people who man the bridges and other points of entry. The Immigration Naturalization Service, now the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is the investigative arm to enforce customs laws and are now America’s second largest law enforcement agency behind the FBI. Now that we are confused, let’s get started.

Richard: Ok. What about the proposals to drastically increase the size our border patrol force and those implications.

Jacobs: They (the government) propose adding 21,000 new Border Patrol (BP), basically doubling the size of the current force. On top of this I think this bill also wants to increase the number of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers by 3,500. When you add up the cost to train, plus uniforms, equipment, health benefits and pay these men and women…….that’s certainly another10 figure (> $1 billion) annual expenditure. The Republicans try to lay claim to being the party of fiscal responsibility and restraint……well I don’t see much evidence here.

Congressman Cuellar: I might add that whatever the exorbitance that this cost turns out to be, there is no current funding plans for any of the ancillary services that will be needed with expectations of more apprehensions. To meet the increase in Border Patrol more judges, more prosecutors and public defenders…..probation officers, federal marshals, new buildings for more courtrooms…..and finally more detention centers will be necessary.

Jacobs: Speaking of prisons, there was a July 6 article in the WSJ that says the Congressional Budget Office predicts another 14,000 inmates annually will be added to federal prison populations. The two large private prison companies, Corrections Corp. of America and GEO Group are both drooling to get in on this action. A research piece by Avondale partners estimates private companies will get 80 percent of this new business and the price tag will be $1.6 billion over the next decade…..just one more wealth transfer from private citizens, the taxpayers, to public prison companies.

If this bill becomes law it will be a boon for government subcontractors and an enormous boondoggle for taxpayers. When you ladle in all the Washington inefficiencies compounded with the complexities and logistics of implementing these proposals, it is recipe for economic disaster. Initially it will also increase demand for housing, and retail and restaurants which will cause some economic growth for the Laredo and other border areas. But remember all of this expansion and development cycle occurs….that is, it starts with and is continually funded with taxpayer dollars.

Richard: I have read some articles about concerns over some recent increases in corruption among both Border Patrol and Customs agents. How can this rapid increase in manpower be accomplished without compromising the overall integrity of our forces.

Jacobs: First of all let me go on the record stating that the vast vast majority of our men and women in green (Border Patrol) and blue (Customs and Border Protection) are hard-working people of the highest integrity. That said, I understand that, from 2005 through 2011 there have been 151 arrests and 125 corruption convictions for drug smuggling and human trafficking by Federal Employees. Newspaper reports claim two San Diego border patrol agents who were brothers just got 30 and 35 years for being ringleaders in a human smuggling operation. The GOA (Government Accountability Office) from 2005 through 2012 reported 2,170 agents were arrested on non-corruption charges such as DUI or domestic violence. All of this is an embarrassment to the true professionals in CBP, but Congress sees nothing wrong…..they want to double down.

Richard: Two politicians have gone on the record publicly with claims that drug cartels are actively recruiting our border patrol and customs agents. Texas Republican Congressman Michael McCaul openly asserts that (terrorist organization) Hezbollah is actively involved with Mexican drug cartels. Arizona Democrat Ron Barber has said “there is an element (of BP and CBP) that is corrupt……because the cartels put a lot of money on the table…….. (and) they may have been recruited by the cartels…..to help them get the drugs across”. Gary, can you respond?

Jacobs: I have seen no evidence of terrorists crossing through Mexico. It was Canada not Laredo where some of the 9/11 suicide bombers crossed. On the other hand, there is big money in contraband of all types including trafficking in human beings. There is ample evidence that when a poorly educated opportunistic Congress crams unrealistic goals down the throats of honest and well intentioned managers of border patrol law enforcement, that they overstress the system.

Because of the increase in overall border malfeasance, Congress passed the Anti-Corruption Act of 2010 which among other things requires polygraph tests for all new hires. That was another piece of legislation pointed in the wrong direction. Local managers, not out of touch with border issues civil servants in Washington, need to be designing and implementing recruiting regimens. Our local managers could easily have identified who had the appropriate background to serve and quickly weed out the mistakes…..but they can’t because of Congress.

To put some numbers to it, in 2010 in a mad rush to hire new Customs and Border Protection agents only 1 in 10 were given lie-detector tests and of those 60 percent failed……mind boggling! Statistically, right there it says your odds of misbehavior by agents increased exponentially. Procedures are now in place and all new applicants are taking the (polygraph) test and, get this, almost 70 percent are failing! The GOA recommends expanding lie-detector tests to current employees but at $800 per copy, there are no funds in the budget to handle the expense.

To me, with the statistics just mentioned and with no changes to the system, why should we begin an ad hoc program to arbitrarily throw 20,000 more bodies at this problem. One can almost guarantee that without a rational detailed map justifying doubling the size of our forces, we will be creating more problems than we are solving. I would rather delegate to local CBP leadership how they want to recruit, where they want to recruit and how they choose to screen entrants. If they can only find 200 per year or 2,000 per year who meet the high standards set for the generation of the now senior folks, then that will dictate the size of the force……When I moved to Laredo and up until the reactionary creation of the monster agency Homeland Security, corruption cases along the border were few and far between.